Sailing Pelagia: Last days in Greece... Delphi, Athens and home

Monday, 18 November 2019

Last days in Greece... Delphi, Athens and home

Temple of Apollo, Delphi

[Sorry for our delay in getting this post out. The flights home were filled with coughing, sneezing people. We arrived home in Whistler and within 48 hours were stricken down with debilitating chest and head colds. The joys of travel!]

Arriving on the Blue Star ferry to Athen's Port of Piraeus from Syros, we hopped on the metro out to nearby the airport to pickup a rental car for 4 days. Already familiar with the metro as we had spent 3 nights in Athens at the start of this trip (and used it back in 2015), all went smoothly. Getting the car near the airport meant we would avoid Athens traffic (mostly) and save a 30€ charge for pickup at other locations (the metro cost 1.40€ each). We hopped in the car headed for Delphi and promptly got lost.

A few minutes with our smartphone maps app (MAPS.ME, free maps and works great for driving directions) and we were properly on our way.

Delphi is a few hours drive North of Athens, up in the mountains with Mt. Parnassus (2457m) towering overhead. We arrived just as it was getting dark, where our nice little hotel upgraded our room to one with a view to the valley (and sea) below.

View from hotel room in Delphi (Gulf of Corinth in distance)

Next day, we first toured the excellent Delphi Archeological Museum, in order to get a better understanding of Dephi. We then toured the archeological sites. We were impressed with the museum, and with the dramatic physical setting of the site. But one definitely should tour the museum first. Unfortunately, our arrival at the archeological site coincided with many tour busloads of tourists, daytripping from Athens. It was mid November and definitely too crowded; imagine July-August high season. (Recommendation: stay in Delphi, or nearby Arachova, and visit site early before busses arrive, or early afternoon after they leave to return to Athens!). We got away from the crowds by walking 800m over to the sanctuary of Athena Pronoia, where the "Tholos" is located

The Sphinx of Naxos (Delphi Archeological Museum)

Treasury of Athens (Delphi) built to commemorate their victory at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC.

The Tholos at the sanctuary of Athena Pronoia (Delphi)

We enjoyed our short visit to Delphi (considered to be the centre of the world - - omphalos - - in the eyes of the ancient Greeks; sorry Toronto, sorry NYC 😉). The archeological site was fascinating (albeit crowded); the small nearby town of Delphi was very nice, with good, fairly priced tavernas, good hotels and dramatic views.

We had the car for another 2 days, and we were at a loss as to where to go. We didn't feel like more sightseeing. Actually, we wished we were still in Ermoupolis on Syros.

In the end, we decided to check out the untouristy island of Evia, not far from Athens. As it turned out, Evia was so untouristy, the locations with hotels were mostly closed down for the Winter. We did find a hotel in the ancient spa town of Loutra Aidipsos, though we didn't find the town so interesting (and it was somewhat run down). We did find the sights across Evia interesting (and the driving sometimes challenging, as Evia is quite mountainous). Nevertheless, we decided to get closer to Athens on our last day with the car, so we headed to the beach and harbour town of Nea Makri, 25 km from Athens. We were very pleasantly surprised by Nea Makri, and wished we had spent out last 2 nights with car there: nice beach, nice harbour and many good tavernas. And our little hotel was great. Maybe next visit.

We had two final nights in Athens. Time enough for our last good Greek food and wine and time to see a large protest (very common in Athens). We had a 7am flight to Frankfurt then on to Vancouver. All went well in the travel (or so we thought, until we came down with colds) and we were happy to be home.